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Tuesday, 14 January 2014

Thanatomorphose (2012).

Many thanks to Monster Pictures UK for providing me with a screener of this strange yet sickening Canadian body horror. This is one of those movies that tries it's hardest to disgust the viewer, and regularly achieves this goal through some rather disgusting visuals and brutal violence. It isn't all about the gore though, as the mental breakdown the young woman goes through as well as the physical one, is handled incredibly well.

After a night of rough sex, a young woman awakens the next morning to find bruises and marks that seem to have come out of nowhere. Throughout the film, the womans body begins to decay, and we join her on her journey through a mystery illness, and the psychological effects this has on her.

The films is certainly sickening with it's stomach churning depiction of a woman slowly rotting away, and the FX are incredible, as fingers fall off, skin splits and wounds drip with bodily fluids, but this isn't a film that relies solely on gore. The mental decline the woman goes through is stark and shocking, showing the breakdown of her mind as much as the special FX show the breakdown of her body.

Thanatomorphose is incredibly claustrophobic in it's execution, mostly taking part in the young womans apartment, where she becomes more introverted, isolating herself from the general public as her body and mind both rot in unison.

The lead actress, Kayden Rose delivers an overwhelming performance, being naked for the most part of the running time, but there is very little titillation on offer. The sex scenes, while not being explicitly graphic, are brutal and show how much the woman is consumed with allowing herself to be used by unloving men, and that her only value in life is that she gets enjoyment from this.

Thanatomorphose is an incredibly provocative piece of cinema, recalling the works of Jorg Buttgereit, it is a nauseating and disturbing piece of cinema that really does test the viewers endurance with it's depiction of both the mental and physical breakdown of a woman who has nothing to live for.

This film should be seen by anyone with a taste for the horrific, the gore soaked and the intelligently handled horror movie. It will not disappoint on any level.